


The Shock of Heat

by ZeldaByrdeBishop



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Intrusive Thoughts, Murder, She will come back though, Suicide, awban compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26593840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeldaByrdeBishop/pseuds/ZeldaByrdeBishop
Summary: Zelda seemed much too confident with the exorcism rite that Edward had written when she burst through the door to aid Sabrina, Mary Wardwell, and Hilda in the Putnam house. Is it too much to believe she hasn't performed these rites before?Prompt by tumblr's: @know-the-way, @mambospellman, and @timelady-queenofhell
Relationships: Zelda Spellman/Daiki Hana (OC)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is AWBAN compliant because AWBAN itself can be canon compliant if we all wish on Tinkerbell's fairy dust hard enough, so be aware this will have some illusions to that, but they should be bearable for those of you who don't read that fic of mine.
> 
> I did as much research as I could think of on Japan and customs and their demonology, but there are bound to be discrepancies. Let me know if you see anything that needs editing here. I truly know nothing about Japan, but hopefully I've done it some justice.
> 
> This will be at least two parts. I hit 9 pages and figured this was a good place to stop for a moment, so y'all wouldn't have to read a full novel all at once. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!!!!

1835

Hiroshima, Japan 

Zelda's shoulders settled as she lifted her face to the sun while exiting the belly of the ship her and Edward had taken to the Japanese Isles. The air was sweet with spring, the smell of cherry blossoms seeming to penetrate the entire country. She loved Japan and was grateful for the opportunity to venture back. 

“Come, Zelda. We can’t keep Seia-san waiting,” Edward urged, placing a hand on the small of her back to lead her down the ramp. He still hadn’t quite told her what he was doing coming here. He had told her that Seia-san had asked for her assistance with an odd pregnancy, but Zelda knew with all of the politics at home with their recent move to France that there was no way he would simply come to escort her. 

They jumped into a carriage that had been sent for them and made their way to the temple, arriving in the main hall to be greeted by Seia-san and a young man Zelda didn’t recognize. 

“Welcome, Edward-kan - Zelda-chen,” Seia san greeted warmly with the nod of her head, which they returned. The young man on the other hand bowed at the waist, giving Zelda pause. 

“Seia-san. It’s so lovely to be reacquainted,” Edward returned. 

“Eiichi-sama is going to be pleased to see you. We’ve found ourselves in quite the...fix.”

Edward nodded. “It’s my pleasure.”

A small silence came over them all and Zelda frowned deeply looking between Seia-san and Edward and the young man who looked her up and down before seeming...resigned? She pressed a hand to her corset, her eyes narrowing. 

“You haven’t told her,” Seia-san confirmed, glancing between Zelda and Edward.

Her brother gave the older witch a sheepish look. “Father forbade it.”

The older woman scowled. “Cowardice.”

Edward scowled and stood straighter. 

Seia-san turned to Zelda and took her hands. “Zelda-chan, darling. This is Daiki-kun,” she said, gesturing to the man behind her. “Your father….asked me to find a suitable partner for you. He is orphaned and a union between the two of you may bring honor not only to his future family, but bring honor through you both in unifying to covens.”

Zelda’s eyes widened and she stepped back, removing her hands from Seia-san’s. “I beg your pardon? Edward?!” 

Her brother’s hands rested tensely in his back pockets as he watched, unable to look his sister in the eye.

“You brought me here to marry me off!? Edward? Edward! Answer me!” Zelda demanded, moving to stand directly in front of her brother, forcing him to look at her. 

Edward’s jaw was tense as he stood in front of her. His voice was firm, but quiet, “I tried to plead your case, but father was insistent.”

“Pawn off the deplorable daughter on the political chess board he so enjoys playing?! This is why you had me pack so extensively. I’m not meant to return home!” She shouted shoving his chest, her body vibrating with anger.

“ZELDA-CHAN!” Seia-san scolded, verbally. 

Zelda ignored the woman and pushed her brother harder and then again harder, infuriated he wasn’t pushing back. 

“Zelda -”  
She snapped her hand back and struck him across the cheek with all of her might, causing him to finally jerk forward, snatching her forearms in his hands, jerking her to the side causing her to lose her balance. “ZELDA, STOP!”

Suddenly, Edward was flung back, hitting a pillar a few feet behind him. 

Zelda didn’t turn to see who the perpetrator had been and picked up her skirts to rush out of the hall to the library. She didn’t slow her pace even as other witches and warlocks scowled as she barreled past them, finally reaching the large library doors, enclosing herself in the room. She pressed her palms to her corset as her chest heaved, trying to catch her breath as she moved to the back of the library, hiding herself among the large scrolls. She shut her eyes tight as she leaned against the wall, grabbing onto one of the scroll’s handles as a sharp pain hit her chest, her wrists itching. Her father was marrying her off - to a warlock in Japan without even telling her. She hadn’t said goodbye to Hilda. She had left Vinegar Tom to guard the books she’d left from her father. She needed to hit someone, but there was no one around, so she gently traced her fingers over her back, murmuring a spell to tighten the strings until small black spots clouded her eyesight. Hopefully this corset could hold her together, until Edward returned to her to apologize. Surely, he would help her find a way out of this. Her breathing calmed slightly as the thought washed over her. Edward would find a way out of this. 

***

About an hour later, a kimono graced Zelda’s peripheral vision and she looked up, expecting Edward, but instead was greeted by her….suitor - Daiki. 

The man held two bowls of noodles and handed one to her. She silently took the warm bowl and held it in her hands as he eased himself down onto the ground to sit with her in the small corner she’d cultivated between scroll shelves. He was a little too close for her liking due to the limited space between the shelves, but her stomach immediately began to growl at the smell of food and decided to leave it for the time being, picking up the chop sticks instead, her large skirt a suitable enough barrier. 

“Thank you,” she stated, before beginning to eat. 

He nodded and took a bite as well. 

Zelda knew she should apologize after her abhorrent emotional display earlier, but took her time in doing so. His silence did not feel motivated by anger as she had expected it to be. He seemed to simply be quiet.

“I’m sorry…. Daiki-san.”

“Daiki is fine and there is no need for apologies, Zelda-san.”

“Just Zelda…”

“Zelda……..I’m sorry you were unaware.”

She nodded, “You seemed surprised to see me as well.”

He took a moment, taking another bite, chewing and swallowing, never really looking at her, before responding. “I knew you were from another coven…. I didn’t know you would be Irish.”

Zelda scowled, “Is there something wrong with being Irish?”

He shook his head, unphased by her cruel tone, “No, but it’s an illegal union outside of these walls. I’d hoped to be able to take my future wife into town.”

Zelda paused. She had forgotten. 

“I regret to inform you that you will suffer for this union,” he divulged, his eyes staying on the bowl in his lap, “I am an orphan. I have no assets to my name. I have no fortune left to me. I simply have my work as a translator for the academy, which pays decently, but not exceptionally.”

Zelda watched him and set her chopsticks down. “At the risk of sounding elitist, I come from a very high class family in the West, why am I here?”

He frowned and finally met her eyes. “The details I’ve pieced together come mostly from my ear pressed to closed doors, but I do know that your brother was sent here to aid us. You were sent here to -” he paused.

Zelda scowled.

“Allow me to begin again. To understand you need a larger picture. Our coven had been plagued by a spirit or a demon of sorts that haunts women. Our female members are being attacked and out numbers are being depleted. Your brother was sent to eradicate the demon. You were sent to aid in increasing our numbers.”

The witch’s jaw dropped. “What?!”

He set his bowl on the floor and held up a hand, “This was no more your choice than mine and you are not the only woman who has been summoned, although you are the first from a land so far away. Perhaps our numbers are depleted further than I’d thought”

Zelda sat there stunned. She was sent here to have children. She was sent to Japan to have children. After the centuries of studying and working, she was sent across the world to have children for another coven in order to increase their numbers. “I...need to speak to my brother.”

He stood quickly with her, “Wait. I need to give you something.”

Zelda scowled as he didn’t wait to take her hand, setting a small metal whistle attached to a chain in it. 

“Take this into the restroom with you. All of the women’s deaths have occurred in the restroom. This whistle will summon me. This union may not be ideal, but your death is not a wish I have.”

Her eyes softened slightly and she nodded, closing her palm around the whistle. “Thank you Daiki...for dinner and for your honesty.”

He held her hands for a moment longer, before letting go with a nod. 

***

She burst through the door to Edward’s room and crossed her arms. 

“Good evening, Sister,” Edward greeted from his desk, turning to face her, dressed in a deep yellow kimono and slippers “I see you still haven’t gotten dressed.”

She looked down at her corset based gown and smoothed her hand down the tight corset and over her panniers. “I am dressed.”

He rolled his eyes, “You know what I meant. Your new husband really did a number on my neck.” Her brother complained, rubbing the back of his neck, turning back to his papers. 

So, it had been Daiki who shot Edward away. She twirled the whistle between her fingers. 

“I won’t be a broodmare, Edward.”

He sighed to himself and turned back around. “That’s not up to either of us. Father in-”

“Father is insidious!”

Edward frowned, his shoulders sinking. 

“Why not Hilda?”

Edward frowned deeper, not answering.

“All Hilda DOES is bloody cook and clean and play with those damned spiders! SHE should have been the one sent here! I was making real progress in my study of Satanic sleeping incantations versus sleeping potions and their effects on unborn fetuses! I had cell samples coming to me from Kenya that Brother Jacque and I were meant to study!”

Edward pressed his lips together and raised his eyebrows.

“....Zelds. That study is going to Jacque.”

She froze. “What?”

“Father found it unfit that you were weaseling your way further into….men’s work.”

Zelda’s eyes grew harder, “So he sent me away. And here I thought it was simply because Faustus had arrived in France.”

“Well...that was certainly the last nail in the coffin…..”

Zelda scowled and Edward stood, taking her hands in his, “I swear to you I did everything I could…..I thought you liked Japan..”

Zelda removed her hands from his and jabbed the whistle at him, “As a  _ temporary _ location.” 

“And you get on well with Seia-san-”

“Who is in cahoots with our father about marrying me off!”

Edward sighed and gestured to the whistle. “Where did you get that?”

“Daiki gave it to me.”

Edward raised an eyebrow, “No “san”?”

Zelda scowled, “Daiki-SAN gave it to me anticipating the problem  _ you’re _ here to solve. Not  _ only _ am I meant to be a catholic rabbit, but I’m meant to be a catholic rabbit who can’t go to the loo without a witch’s whistle!” 

Edward chuckled to himself and pulled his sister into an embrace, “I will fix it….”

Zelda frowned, wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her head against his chest. “.....Both the marriage and the demon?”

He nodded, resting his chin on her head, “To the best of my abilities….I swear to you sister.”

******

The woman Seia-san had been attending was going through a difficult pregnancy, but not in the way of physicality - rather she was insane, Normally, Zelda could combat this third-trimester hysteria with ease, but her sleep last night was beyond dismal. She’d missed Vinegar Tom’s warm body wrapped around her feet and she couldn’t help but feel like she’d been watched the entire night. Nothing had happened, but she kept the whistle between her fingers as the time had passed. Perhaps she’d gotten three hours?

“Are you sure you can’t just check again!?”

Zelda rolled her eyes dramatically for the twentieth time as she mixed up a sleeping potion, putting it into some tea for the woman, forcing her to drink it as she cried about her fear of giving birth to a child cursed with fins, when they had in fact found nothing fishy about this pregnancy nor any signs of curses and had assured the woman over and over and over of this fact. 

Once the woman fell into her sleep, Zelda began to clean their materials, silently. 

“You’re truly not going to speak to me, Zelda-chan?”

Zelda didn’t respond, she had done her best to remain silent the entire time they’d been working, part of her wishing she hadn’t put the fishwoman under so she could have continued to fill the noise.

“I found the best suitor for you I could. He will treat you well, unlike the man your father had suggested, darling.”

Zelda placed the tools back into their designated spots. 

“....... Edward-kan and I hoped you may finally find companionship in this marriage. He told me you’d been lonely -”

“I’m not lonely,” Zelda snapped, the toy bunny she’d left in her bed that morning flashing through her mind. “And I don’t need an arranged companion. Edward is working now to find a way to reverse it.”

Seia-san nodded a bit, seeming unconvinced, which Zelda ignored. Her brother wouldn’t lie to her. 

“Well...Daiki-kan is a lovely young man. It will bring me no sorrow if your brother does not succeed.”

Zelda rolled her eyes and finished her cleaning. 

“He will.”

The older witch shrugged softly and wrote a few things down in a notebook to log the appointment. 

“Speaking of Daiki-kan….I asked if you had apologized for your outburst yesterday and he said yes. I suspect this was a lie on your behalf. Apologize.”

The younger witch rolled her eyes. She had apologized, but it spoke accurately to their character’s that the woman had thought he lied for her. She gently touched the whistle’s chain that hung around her neck.

“He also has requested your presence in the library when we’re finished.”

Zelda nodded, curious what he could want. 

Seia-san smiled to herself, watching Zelda’s fingers on the chain. “Your duties are finished here. Do not keep him waiting.”

The younger witch nodded. “Send for me if you need any further aid when she wakes.”

The older woman nodded as she fixed her glasses to her face, waving her away with red polished fingers. “Scat!”

***

Daiki was sitting on the floor, writing notes to himself when she arrived. 

“You requested me?”

He looked up and nodded, gesturing to the other side of the table. 

Zelda gathered her large royal blue skirts and sat down across from him as he pushed a bowl of sliced fruit her way. Zelda took a slice and settled into the floor. “I feel like a cow being fed before the slaughter.”

He smirked and rolled his eyes at her light comment. “Seia-san told me you tend to forget to eat”

Zelda hid the small smile that played on her lips with another bite. “One has a lot of work to accomplish over the span of a day.”

“You look as if you’ve already done too much work today and the morning is still fresh.”

She wiped her juice covered fingers with a cloth. “I was up late last night reading.”

He lifted a finger as his eyes lit up, “So, you can read?”

Zelda smirked and looked up at him a wicked look skating into her eyes, “In which language do you need?”

His smile grew and he handed her a page of his notes. “I’ve been thinking….We may not have to get married if we can determine who this demon is and how to defeat it before any more of the coven is depleted.”

Zelda feigned an offended look, her eyes staying comical as she spoke, her mouth full of fruit, “You don’t want to marry me?”

His smile grew, “As…. charming as you are,” he coyly gestured to her mouth, “I’d prefer a wife who chose to spend her life with me.”  
Zelda’s smile grew and she swallowed the last of the fruit before summoning a lit cigarette after wiping her hands once more. “Then we’re in agreement. What have you found?”

“When demons are close, one tends to be plagued with mokumokuren. They’re little eyes that peer at you from between the tears in the shoji,” he explained gesturing to one of the sliding paper doors that the Japanese had an affinity for. She could appreciate their airy design, but it wasn’t a wonder that the mokumokuren had chosen them for their hauntings as the door and separators had the tendency to tear, leaving enough holds to peer through with ease. 

“Alright... so a side effect, but do we have a cause, or a demon?”

He shook his head. I’ve been taking notes on the women who were slaughtered and the only similarities I’ve found are in how they died. They died in one of two ways. They were either suffocated, or their flesh was cut to ribbons.”

Zelda’s eyes intensified as she sucked on her cigarette. 

“Are we sure it’s not simply a man?”

Daiki frowned and shook his head, “We’re positive. The air is always teeming with demonic energy in the aftermath.”

She nodded. She hadn’t experienced it herself, but she’d been told through her novels that the air almost tingled with electricity if a demon was present and active, although often this energy is light enough to simply be attributed to anxiety. 

“So, we need to find out which demon is running amuck and through that we should be able to discover what they want and how to stop them.”

He nodded and reached beside him to pull out some scrolls, rolling them over to her. 

She quickly took up the first one and unrolled it, starting to read, before summoning another cigarette as the first one finished, setting the finished one on the fruit plate. 

They sat like this for hours, saying nothing. Instead they found a more nonverbal shorthand. One of them would find a small piece of information and write it down, rolling it across the table, which the other would then receive and read before either confirming it, or denying it based off of a piece of writing they’d read disproving such a fact. 

Eventually, Zelda stood up, stubbing out her 10th cigarette. “I need to stretch. Perhaps some fresh air.”

He looked from the makeshift ashtray to her face, his eyebrows raising. 

She rolled up a stray piece of paper into a ball and threw it at him, “Hush.” 

He smirked and stood up, “I’ll find us something to eat.” 

Zelda wrapped her arms around each other as they began to walk out of the library to their new destinations. “I’m going to need a new corset with you around.”

“It’s almost evening!” He protested, “And you wouldn’t need a new corset if you would wear a kimono, like everyone else.”

She smirked and shrugged her shoulders trotting a bit in front of him to walk backwards, “I’m not like everyone else.”

He rolled his eyes with a small smile and stopped, gesturing to an adjacent door. “We’ve renovated that garden since your family had last been here. I’ll join you in a moment.”

She nodded and allowed her heels a small bounce before stepping through the door, relieved to be out in the fresh air. He was right. It was quite different than the last time she’d been here. A small koi pond had been added, as well as a bench and a few trees. She removed her shoes and opted to stay barefooted as she walked through the grass to the bench, sitting down. 

Daiki didn’t take long to return, although he opted for outdoor shoes, rather than allowing his feet the freedom of the outdoors. “I assumed a simple sushi roll would suffice,” he stated as he set the roll between them on the bench, handing her a set of chopsticks. 

“Quite,” she replied, taking a piece, looking up at the blue sky above them. 

They sat quietly for a while, each periodically taking a piece of the roll, before Zelda spoke, her eyes settled on the tree far in front of them. “Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be flayed like one of those women?”

He frowned as he watched the tree. “No……….but I imagine it would be….hot.”

Zelda looked at him, “Hot?”

He nodded, keeping his eyes focused outward, “Your body temperature would rise. I think you might feel hot before you even felt any pain due to the shock.”

She nodded and mulled this over as she pawed at the ground below her feet with her toes, taking note of the sensations it caused. The grass was wet and soft, which made it chilly in contrast to the dirt below it. She felt he must be right. 

“Seia-san told me that our engagement would be announced to the coven at black mass tomorrow.”

Zelda nodded, “....Will there be a ceremony?”

He shrugged softly, “Not a large one.”

She frowned deeply and looked down at her nails. This was not how she imagined this moment. She had gotten a small taste of dreaming while with Dorothea and a larger taste with Faustus, but even when she thought of the unlikely arranged marriage she may be thrown into, it was much more sweeping than this. She’d allowed Hilda to fill her head with too many fairy tales she supposed. She could feel her tear ducts starting to prick and she quickly looked back up at the sky, taking in an involuntary sharp breath. She could see him glance over through her peripheral vision, but he said nothing. 

“We should get back to work. There’s still a few hours of light left,” She stated before standing, starting to walk back inside, but was stopped with a gentle hand around her wrist. She turned back to him, her frown becoming more severe as she opened her lips to protest, but he beat her to it.

“You can’t go inside with your feet filthy.”

She was stunned at his audacity, unable to read his expression, doing everything in her power to keep her voice steady against her rising emotions. “They’re just going inside my shoes.”

“No. Come,” he implored, his hand shifting from her wrist to her hand, tugging ever so slightly towards the koi pond. 

Zelda could feel her chest starting to ache and she knew it was only a matter of moments before she might crumble, “Daiki, please. Let’s just go inside.”

“I insist.”

She was afraid to protest again, her voice beginning to thin in her throat against his earnest eyes and she allowed herself to be led to the pond, where Daiki knelt down at her feet. She put a hand on his shoulder as she gathered her skirts into her hand to lift them for him, wanting to tell him that he didn’t have to do this, that she could do it herself if it meant so much to him, but she could feel her jaw tighten against the sobs that tried to sneak their way through her vocal chords. She clutched his shoulder as she tried to focus on his hands rather than her shuddering chest. 

His hands were gentle as they ran over her feet, taking his time as he brushed the cold water over her skin. His fingers massaging the filth from her soles before drying them on his kimono, summoning her slippers over, murmuring a little spell over the shoes to keep any soil from sticking to their leather before slipping them over her feet. Finally, after all of his physical care, he stood up and looked down into her eyes.

Zelda tried to murmur an apology, but her voice couldn’t move past her trembling lips as her hands came up to her corset, willing the strings to tighten, as she looked down, shutting her eyes. He took her chin in his hand, before letting it go, only to embrace her, exchanging his hand for his shoulder as a place for her head to rest. She could feel her body shaking, but kept her focus on staying silent. She wouldn’t cry. Not verbally. She couldn’t bare it. This wasn’t worth her tears. So many witches had endured worse.  _ She  _ had endured worse and yet here tears had chosen  _ now _ . 

Her anger only quickened their flow as she held onto his smooth silk kimono, pulling his body tighter to her before leaning her head back to look up at him, their faces inches apart. His dark eyes looked down into her’s, taking her in completely as if Shakespeare had really known what he spoke of when he’d stated that “the eyes are the window to your soul.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but his lips silenced her. His breath hot on her skin, drying her tears without touching them. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Part 2 of 3 of what was meant to be a oneshot! (I hope you all expect nothing less of me at this point though!)  
> This chapter is more exposition and fluff than anything, but its necessary to get to the action of the last part!   
> I hope you all enjoy!

Zelda was met with Seia-san’s standard disapproving look as she skittered to the doors of the desecrated church, everyone else was already inside. Black Mass hadn’t quite started, but she knew that she was cutting it much to close for Seia-san’s comfort. The woman was meant to present her to the congregation as an addition to their members under the union to Daiki Hana, which was to take place after black Mass next Sunday. 

“Zelda-chan. You drive my patience and you aren’t even dressed properly,” she scolded, picking at Zelda’s usual black corseted ensemble, rather than the black kimono that Seia-san had set out for the witch the night before. 

Zelda scowled, the bags under her eyes becoming more prominent despite her makeup. “I didn’t sleep well again last night.”

The older witch scowled and swiped her fingers under the witch’s eyes, muttering a glamor, before putting a few stray curls back into Zelda’s updo. “You’ll be the death of me, I swear on Satan’s hooves if you were my daughter…” The woman’s scolding dissipated as she sighed, bringing her hands up to hold Zelda’s face in them. The younger witch was taller despite how small she felt next to the imposing older witch. 

“Stand tall with dignity and don’t cause anymore trouble.”

Zelda nodded resting her hands over the witch’s, “I won’t. I’m sorry..”

The older witch simply shook her head as a small smile peeked through the corners of her lips while she took Zelda’s arm in hers. She squeezed Zelda’s elbow before flicking her wrist, swinging the doors open to lead Zelda to the front of the congregation where she initiated the union between the Church of Dark Lupin and the Night Koi Coven under their week-long engagement and then lifelong marriage under Satan’s guidance. 

Zelda looked over to Daiki, who had stood waiting for her. His smile was gentle and bright as he brought a hand on her back, leading her as they bowed to Seia-san, the High Priest, and then the congregation before sitting down in a pew. 

It was hard not to notice the myriad of disapproving looks from the congregation, whether it was concerning her nationality and her western attire, or her prior reputation she couldn’t be sure. She moved to turn to the page instructed in her Bible, only to discover she’d left her Satanic Bible on her side table in her rush to get out the door that morning.

As if he could read her mind, Daiki’s Bible appeared in her lap. She looked up to him and he squeezed her hand out of view of all other’s, inciting a small smile from her lips, before their eyes turned to the text.

Zelda wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or disappointed that the coven, aside from the elders, generally seemed to avoid her and Daiki at the celebration following Black Mass. She picked at the small cookies she’d found, while pretending not to notice as Seia-san added meat and vegetables to her plate every time she looked away. 

Her eyes connected to Akria’s, Seia-san’s only other pupil from her last time in Japan. The woman smiled a bit as the women around her glared at Zelda. 

“Old friends?” Daiki asked, taking a bite of a cookie as he glanced at the women. 

Seia-san’s eyes widened comically and she took a sip of her wine. 

Zelda tore off another piece of cookie. “It may come as a surprise to you but….I was quite rude when I last lived in Japan and did not make many friends,” the witch confessed raising her chin a bit as if the notion didn’t bother her in the slightest, while her eyes told a different story. 

Seia-san gently squeezed Zelda’s knee under the table. “This time you will make amends.”

Daiki smiled gently, sympathetic. 

The younger witch rolled her eyes, shoving the rest of the cookie in her mouth.

***

The night air was chilly as Zelda lay curled up in the blankets of her bed. Her eyes were heavy, crying out for sleep, but her spine tickled with the sensation of once again being watched. 

She wasn’t unused to the sensation. Periodically, one of her parent’s would loom over her bed at home (most often her father) for a few minutes as if they could catch her performing some evil act from her not quite sleeping state before moving on with their night, but this was different. It was piercing and cold. 

Slowly, Zelda removed the blankets that covered her face, looking to the paper room divider. 

At first, everything seemed wrong, warped, before her eyes adjusted to the dark...and then it seemed fine. Then an eye opened. Zelda froze as she stared at the dark bloodshot eye that stared back at her from the hole in the divider. Mokumokuren. 

Another eye opened in the top corner. Blue with black veins.

Another smaller than the other two. Yellow with jaundice as it’s beadie pupil struck her. 

Another a little larger. Without color. Only a scarred pupil. 

She didn’t wait for another eye. If the mokumokuren were the warning like Daiki had said, then whatever was coming was close. 

Zelda swung her feet off the bed and quickly grabbed the black kimono that hung over the back of a chair close by, pulling it over her nightgown as she lit a candle, before swinging the door open. She quickly began banging on Edward’s door the next room over. 

“Edward!? …..EDWARD!”

There was no response.

Zelda flung the door open. He was gone.

She could feel the air around her starting to prickle and her lower lip trembled with the fear and cold. 

Daiki. 

Zelda took off down the hall, her skirt gathered in her right hand as the wind from her quick pace blew out the candle in her left. She relied on her memory to carry her down the halls to where Daiki had shown her his door in case of an emergency. 

She pounded on the door! “Daiki!”

The prickling began to send shivers down her spine, filling the air around her with ice.

“DAIKI! DAI-”

The door opened and Daiki quickly grabbed her, pulling her trembling body into the room, quickly shutting the door behind her.

“Zelda?!” His hands were on her arms before traveling to her face. “Zelda, you’re ice cold..”

He quickly moved her so she sat on his bed, wrapping his blankets around her before taking the snuffed candle from her hands, setting it to the side. She couldn’t be sure how much of her shaking was from the chill and how much was from shock. 

Daiki knelt on the floor in front of her, taking her hands in his. “Zelda, can you hear me?”

She nodded, clenching her jaw to still it before attempting to speak. “Y-yes. Yes. I’m fine. I’m sorry… I- The mokumokuren. I saw them.”

His expression grew graver. “You saw them?”

She nodded.

He returned the nod before standing to go over to his small in-room fireplace, putting on a tea kettle. 

Zelda watched him and pulled his blankets tighter around her before she felt a sudden cold wet touch against her foot and gasped, almost screaming before she looked down and saw a small black and white rabbit with floppy ears, sniffing at her feet. 

Daiki turned back, hearing her sharpness, “Rabbit. Leave Zelda alone.”

The rabbit looked to Daiki, sitting on its hind legs. 

Daiki blushed and looked between the rabbit and the floor sheepishly, “Yes…...that Zelda.”

Zelda reached out her finger towards the rabbit, who sniffed it before hopping up into her lap, letting her pet him. “You named your rabbit- Rabbit?”

Daiki shrugged leaning against the wall. “I’m poor at naming..”

Zelda smiled and rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the rabbit, who flopped over in her lap, soaking up the attention from her fingers. “I have a familiar… He’s a puppy named Vinegar Tom! I left him at home thinking this was a temporary trip.”

“Vinegar Tom?” Daiki inquired with a skeptical expression. 

“At least I didn’t name him, Dog.” Zelda warned.

The warlock chuckled before taking the kettle off pouring the hot water in a tea cup, prepared with loose leaf tea. He then carried the cup over to her on the bed and sat beside her, offering her the tea.

She took it and blew on the hot liquid before sipping it. She could taste the trace of a sleeping potion she hadn’t noticed him add, but said nothing of it, the action secretly reminding her of her sister Hilda, causing her heart to clench. 

“I’ll send a letter to your father tomorrow, perhaps they’ll be willing to come with Vinegar Tom and the rest of your belongings, or we may be able to make the trip to Ireland instead.” 

Zelda looked up at him, surprised, but pleasantly so. “...Thank you.”

He nodded with a small smile. “A witch should have her familiar handy if she’s to battle demons in the bathroom.”

Zelda smiled and was grateful for the potions calming effects, already feeling heavy, as she replied with only a displeased but teasing hum at the notion of their bathroom demon predicament.

The warlock chuckled and took the teacup from her hands, seeing her fingers beginning to loosen and shooed the rabbit off her lap as he stood to place the tea cup on his side table. 

Zelda moved to stand, but found she’d underestimated how tired her body already had been before the potion, unable to lift herself more than a few inches off the bed. Daiki quietly removed the blankets from around her shoulders in order to drape them over her body as she laid down, his fingers gently touching the skin on her shoulder as he placed them. He took a pillow to move to sleep elsewhere - likely the floor. 

Zelda’s hand moved to stop him, but her mind succumbed to the darkness of sleep, just as his palm took her fingers before they fell. 

***

Zelda’s mind slowly began to come back to the sound of voices in the room around her.

“How long has she been asleep?” Seia-san asked from what sounded like the doorway. 

“A little under eleven hours...Should I wake her?” Daiki sounded concerned.

“What did you put in the potion?”

“Chamomile, lavender, valerian…. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“.......let her sleep. Wake her in an hour if she doesn’t rise and tell me immediately if she won’t wake. I need to attend a meeting with Edward-kun and the Elders. Edward-kun thinks he may have found something to aid in defeating our demon.”

Any exchange beyond that happened in silence and a few moments later Daiki shut the door before walking back over to her. Zelda held still, keeping her facial muscles relaxed and her breathing as even as possible as Daiki reached out to touch her. His fingers gently brushed against her temple as he lifted a curl, running it between his fingers before tucking it behind her ear. He then pressed his fingers to her jaw, checking her pulse before leaving her, moving to sit at what Zelda believed was the desk in the corner. 

Rabbit thumped his foot. 

“......No…...She didn’t choose this. I will help her return.”

Rabbit thumped again.

“Quiet...you’ll wake her.”

She then heard his pen beginning to write and his words last night ran through her mind. _ I’ll send a letter to your father tomorrow, perhaps they’ll be willing to come with him and the rest of your belongings, or we may be able to make the trip to Ireland instead.  _

If she was honest with herself, she was beginning to feel conflicted. 

No, she wasn’t. She wished to return home…….Right?

She worked to keep the frown from her face as she debated internally, but found her mind interrupted by the words of an old woman - her Dorothea as Daiki’s rabbit familiar jumped onto the bed, burrowing itself against her feet.

_ “Rabbits are a symbol of hope, Zelda. They represent love and fertility - new beginnings. Zelda, promise me something. Continue to embrace new beginnings.” _

…...Was Daiki the new beginning Dorothea had intended for her? It was truly uncanny that the man had a rabbit for a familiar. Had Dorothea known? Zelda missed the woman so dearly. Is this what she would have wanted for her? Was this her second chance? 

The witch quickly shoved her thoughts aside, worried of the emotion they may cause and waited a while longer before slowly “rousing,” waking up. 

Daiki turned, hearing her and smiled. “Good morning.”

“Good morning. What time is it?”

“11:46.” 

Zelda’s eyes widened, but she nodded. 

“You should eat…. Is there a dress I can retrieve for you?”

Her head cocked to the side, “No. I can retrieve one myself. Thank you.”

He nodded and stood. “Would you like someone to accompany you?”

She thought of the mokumokuren and frowned, holding her head high, “Only if you desire. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself.”

He nodded and took the letter from the desk, slipping into his shoes at the door.

She stood, her bare feet hitting the cold floor as she joined him. 

They walked in silence down to her room where she changed and fixed her hair before she crossed the hall to the rest rooms. She was secretly grateful Daiki came with, it was a safety precaution. If anything happened while she was in the loo - he was outside the door. He was simply a safety precaution. Simply a safety precaution.

***

A few days later, Zelda caught the scroll he rolled to her and opened it, but instead of it relaying a possible lead in their case it simply said, “Fish?”

Zelda smirked and wrote back, “To eat?”

He rolled the scroll back, which read, “No. A pet name for you. Yes. To eat, Fish.”

Zelda broke the silence, her voice warning but with levity, “Daiki. I will not be called “Fish.””

The man smirked to himself and stood, “I take it you’ll allow it for our meal?”

Zelda puffed and shrugged, taking a drag off her cigarette, but was unable to keep a smile from playing over her lips. “Perhaps. I should get used to them again regardless as there is an abundance in this country.” 

His smirk grew as he squatted beside her, his face close to her’s but faced the scrolls she was looking at. “Depends on the fish you speak of….some are proving one of a kind,” he replied almost instantaneously rising to avoid the swing of a scroll in his direction as she attempted to shoo him away before he could see the obvious blush blooming over her cheeks. 

“Scat!”

She listened as the door to the library shut behind him accompanied by his chuckle and she finally allowed the smile to slip over her features, looking back over the scroll, admiring the word “fish” despite how ridiculous. 

They’d exiled themselves to this library for the past few days, hoping to find the way to defeat the bathroom demon in the various translations of other texts that the Elders may not have been able to read. These sessions were only periodically interrupted by the need for food (which Daiki pressed were crucial break times and Zelda could already feel her corsets getting a bit tight under his meal diligent hand) and interruptions for wedding planning. The wedding was in three days. Zelda had also taken to sneaking into his room in the dead of night, curling up in his bed beside him - as a safety precaution - having found it eased any night terrors and mokumokuren appearances. 

The door opened and she turned, hiding the scroll, as Seia-san walked in holding a paper. “Where is Daiki-kun?”

“He went to retrieve food.”

“Ah, good. This is for him - well, I suppose for the both of you. These are the private minutes for the meeting I just completed with your brother and the Elders to add to the others. As always, you do not have these…” Seia-san pressed with a smile and wink. 

Zelda’s smile brightened. “Splendid!”

Seia-san smiled and leaned over to run a hand through Zelda’s hair, “You have a fitting with me in an hour. Do not be late like last time.”

Zelda nodded and smiled up at her, “I won’t.”

“Good girl,” Seia-san praised despite both of them knowing this would not be true. 

The door to the library opened again and Daiki came bursting around the corner, pausing only to set fish in front of Zelda before rushing off into the shelves, disappearing. 

“Good evening, Daiki-kun!?” Seia-san called after him in jest. They could hear a muffled reply returned, but he was too deep into the stacks to be heard with any clarity. 

Seia-san smiled and looked back down to Zelda. “Make certain he eats.”

The younger witch smiled and crinkled her nose, “He will certainly be eating all of this fish unless it tastes much better than it smells.”

Seia-san smirked and she rolled her eyes before leaving the premises, considering that promise enough. 

Zelda got to work separating their meal onto two plates and began to read the minutes Seia-san had provided them. 

Eventually, Daiki re-emerged from the shelves and sat down beside her, rather than across the table from her. She glanced up as he situated himself. “There’s a Latin text in here that I remembered reading a century ago…..”

She watched him unfurl scrolls and set his plate on the table in front of him before going back to the paper in her hands, periodically taking bites of her dinner and drags of her cigarette, grateful he’d found her an ashtray so she could do both without causing a fire. 

“Edward’s written a rite that can be performed by witches without the High Priest....” She stated, breaking their silence after a few minutes.

Daiki looked up from his scrolls, his eyes widening. “That’s incredibly useful.”

Zelda nodded, “If we can just find out the nature of the demon the coven’s witches wouldn’t need anyone with them to perform the exorcism. They just need to know what to look for.”

He nodded and went back to the scrolls, “If I can find the passage….we may be able to find that answer….”

Zelda glanced at the clock and stood up, ripping up the minutes before tossing them in the fireplace, ensuring they burned before returning to her dinner - tapping his plate with her chopsticks. He silently put some fish in his mouth as he read. She took up a scroll to read as she ate, not sure what she was looking for, but was sure she would know it when she saw it. 

Eventually, she finished her plate and the passage she was reading when she looked up to the clock and swore under her breath. Daiki looked over. 

“I’m late for Seia-san’s fitting…. Afterwards I can steal Edward’s journal and we can right down a copy of the rite. He may also have something else written that may help us. He goes to bed early. We can return the journal before he wakes,” She assured.

He smiled and nodded, “Be careful…...Little Fish.”

She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her smile as she stood, but didn’t succeed.

“Hopefully, I’ll have found what I’m looking for by the time you finish. I’ll relocate to my chambers soon.”

“Alright,” she replied and almost touched his hair before taking a final drag of her cigarette. She stomped out the butt and kept her hands to herself, leaving him with the scrolls to be poked and prodded at the hands of their incessant matchmaker. 

***

The fitting went smoothly. Seia-san had already predicted Zelda’s size in the ceremonial white kimono well and only a few alterations would have to be made, so the older witch spent most of her time prodding Zelda with questions concerning her relations with Daiki rather than needles. Zelda did everything in her power to answer as vaguely as possible. She wasn’t completely sure how she felt about Daiki and their situation. 

She felt she should still be upset about the arrangement, but she’d found that much like Dorothea, he just fit. He fit differently, but he fit. He was easy to converse with. If they didn’t know how to say something in Japanese or English, there was always French, or Russian, or Latin, or Spanish, or German, or even the way he would touch the tips of his chopsticks to her lips that would convey what they wanted to say more accurately. He was good to her in a way Faustus had not been and although Zelda wasn’t sure she could say so out loud, perhaps Seia-san was right, maybe she did deserve something good, rather than something convenient or self promoting. Her mind kept travelling back to Dorothea’s words, “ _ Rabbits are a symbol of hope, Zelda. They represent love and fertility - new beginnings.”  _

“Zelda-chan, your mind is very far,” Seia-san poked as she laid out the kimono Zelda had changed out of. 

“Daiki and I’s research is beginning to bring forth some results. I’m simply mulling them over.”

Seia-san gave the younger witch a look, not believing her, but didn’t press further. “Alright. Well, you are free to go uncover more answers. I will be able to finish the last of these alterations without your body present, under the condition that you return tomorrow so I can ensure the sleeves are the right length.”

“I will, arigatou gozaimasu,” Zelda thanked as she leaned over to kiss Seia-san’s cheek, staining it with her lip lacquer, causing the woman to hiss despite her smile as Zelda skirted out of the room to steal her brother’s journal. 

Her brother had been fast asleep as she’d predicted. He and Hilda had always been first to bed and first to rise, rivaling her night owl tendencies. She also knew where he would hide such an important book - among his undergarments. Her brother still had the childish notion that digging in his underwear drawer would prove too disgusting of a task to prevent her theft (and to his credit - it dissuaded her thievery, but this was an important occasion and worth her strife). 

She was quick and silent as her hands dug through his cotton, securing the leather bound journal she knew would hold the rite. She was careful not to make any noise as she shut the dresser drawer and scampered out of the room to hold the new text up to one of the hallway candles. It would be worthless to bring the wrong book down the halls. 

Flipping to the last written page she smiled finding the words “Witch Exorcism Rite” scrawled at the top of the page. She had it! It appeared the rite required the demon’s name, but other than that it seemed to be simply a bundle of repetitive phrasing - calling upon witches past to endow the witch casting the rite with strength. It was simple. Easy to remember. This would be good for mass use. 

Even if Daiki hadn’t found what he was looking for, this would delight him!

She quickly jogged down the corridors, opening the door to his chambers without bothering to knock. 

Daiki looked up from where he sat at his desk and immediately smiled, standing. 

“I’ve got it!” They both said simultaneously as he crossed to meet her, while she shut the door.

He held up a scroll and read, “‘Aka Manto! A masked, cloaked demon who asks witches to choose between the colors red and blue. If a witch chooses red she will die at his knife. If a witch chooses blue she will die by his hand”. This demon is an oni and a powerful one, but I’m certain it’s correct! I’m certain! To rid oneself of him all one must do is stab the oni with a knife forged of damascus steel and gold and Seia-san has one!”

Zelda beamed up at him and she held open the page to the rite, “Edward’s rite is written - all it needs is the name of the demon, or oni, in question and with the dagger-”

“We have the exorcism AND the destruction of the oni!”

“We simply have to tell the coven’s council!”

“I already sent a message to Seia-san, informing her that Hiroto-sama, her late husband’s, dagger is the key to destroying Aka Manto once he’s been exorcised! She can take the dagger and the name of the oni to the coven council tomorrow morning - we’re saved. The witches of the coven are saved!” 

She looked up at him, her eyes alive. “Daiki….you’ve done it!” 

He glowed down at her, “ _ We’ve _ done it.”

Zelda’s grin grew as she placed her hand on his cheek. 

Daiki squeezed her waist gently before he began to let her go - just as she dropped Edward’s journal, wrapping her arms around his neck, to bring his lips down to her’s. 

He pulled her closer as they kissed, speaking as they parted, “You can go home..”

Zelda looked up at him. Her body was all too aware of his and she ran her hands down his chest to his pelvis to gently push his legs against his bed until he fell back onto it. She reveled in the entranced look that overcame his eyes when she hiked up her skirts to reveal her legs as she crawled onto the bed over him, positioning herself over his already hardening member. 

“I can…….” Her fingers took his kimono, pulling his torso back up to her, so she could begin to undo it’s wrapping, exposing his chest to her hands. 

He followed suit, undoing the buttons on the back of her dress until he could pull the large frock over her head, before using magic to make quick work of her corset. He waited until she’d finished disrobing him before pulling her underdress over her head, his breath catching as she was revealed to him. 

Their lips connected again, inciting soft moans as she ground onto his shaft. His heart practically stopped as her nails dug into his shoulders when he ran his fingers over the front of her body. The pads of his fingers traced back to admire her puckered aroused nipples. Zelda moaned, low and soft against his ear, her hand holding the back of his neck as she moved, lifting herself around him from her knees as she grabbed his shaft with her other hand to lead him inside her. 

He quickly took her hand in one of his, pausing her as he pressed his other palm to her abdomen, beginning to murmur a spell to prevent pregnancy into the soft fragrant skin where her neck and jaw connected, but her other hand came up covering his mouth. 

He looked up at her as she spoke, her breath heavy, “...Not unless you want to……...Daiki..marry me.”

He searched her eyes. 

She meant it.

He removed her hand from his lips and gently kissed the inside of her wrist, keeping their eyes connected until he erased all distance between them, pulling her warm body into him as his lips took hers. Zelda kissed him deeply, opening her lips and legs to him as she positioned him, spreading her legs further to ease down onto him, pulling her name from his lips onto her tongue and the night slipped from language to language all connected by silent touch.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end! Thank you all for joining Zelda, Daiki, Seia, and I on this journey!!!!  
> (I'm positive this isn't the last you'll see of these characters! I've gotten much too attached!)

His lips were soft as his tongue gently pulled up the roof of her mouth to touch the base of her teeth, encouraging the soft moan that left her lips. Their legs were still tangled as he placed two more kisses down her throat before kissing the tip of her nose. 

Zelda’s eyes opened to look up at him, her arms still locked loosely around his neck, “If you’re not careful we’ll have to forego sleep for the rest of the night.”

Daiki smiled softly down at her, brushing a sweaty curl off of her forehead. “Seia-san would not take well to that. She mentioned that Sister Kaito has made another appointment for today.”

Zelda groaned and brought a hand to her face, “Satan help me. Her third trimester hysteria is driving me mad.”

The warlock chuckled, sitting up, his body between her legs as he gently rubbed her thighs. “She’s the one who’s worried about her child having fins?”

Zelda nodded letting her hand fall back to the pillow as her other hand’s fingers stroked his ankle. “Seia-san and I have a theory.”

Daiki smiled and tilted his head to inquire, smiling wider as the witch’s grin grew

wicked, her eyes glowing with mischief. 

“We think she was unfaithful to Brother Kane and this is her guilty conscience come to play.”

He laughed and squeezed her thighs, his tone gently scolding but too jovial to be taken even with an ounce of sincerity, “That sounds more like gossip than a theory.”

The witch smirked and propped herself up on her elbows. “We’re sneaking a paternity test into the mix of our routine check up list in order to find out.”

He gently pinched her thigh, shaking his head, not bothering to fight his grin, “I will allow this debauchery on one condition.”

Zelda sat up the rest of the way, bringing her face only centimeters from his as her hips reconnected to his. “And what’s that?”

He brought a hand up to support her back, placing another kiss to her lips, “You tell me the results.” 

“Deal,” She agreed, sealing the deal with one more languid kiss before parting, slipping off his lap. “I’m going to clean up.”

He stood up and grabbed his kimono, the black one that was lined in red silk with mirroring bundles of white blossoms across its midnight color, and wrapped it around her before reconnecting the clasp on her witch whistle, pulling her hair free from under the chain. 

She smiled up at him and placed a hand on his chest. “I’ll be back once I’m done cleaning  _ your mess _ ,” she pushed coyly. 

“Be careful, Little Fish,” He replied, running his thumb over her lips. 

“I will.” 

***

The smile that graced her lips was shameful as she wrapped the kimono back around her wet body after bathing. The air prickled with a chill around her. She should have brought a towel, but she hadn’t thought that through. 

“Red or Blue?” A gravelly asked behind her.

Zelda frowned deeply and turned to face the voice, confronted with a man in a gold mask, cloaked in red.

His dark scathing voice repeated his words, stepping forward as the water that still coated her body soaked through the kimono as she backed up until her back became flush with the wall behind her, “Red or Blue?”

The prickle she had dismissed in the air began to crackle - this was no ordinary man.

Aka Manto.

Zelda quickly grabbed the witch whistle from around her neck, blowing into it. 

Nothing.

She blew into it again - harder.

Nothing.

“RED OR BLUE”

She blew into the whistle again with a long continuous breath. 

Where was Daiki?! 

“DAIKI!! DAIKI!!!!” Zelda cried out as the demon ventured further, standing directly in front of her…..at a familiar height. 

Zelda’s mind started to work, looking down at the whistle, to the hands that held the ribbons, and then finally up at the mask. 

Slowly, the witch reached up, taking the mask in her hands to slowly lift it away from the perpetrator’s face...revealing the face of Daiki. 

The heavy gold piece clattered to the tile floor beneath her as her head fell back to rest against the tile wall. “Daiki..”

The warlock began to shake and jerk in unnatural directions, fighting against himself until Daiki was on the floor, his shoulder jutting back. “ZELDA!”

Her eyes widened, trying desperately to take in the movements and connect them through her shock. 

“ZELDA!”

Her jaw trembled as she scanned the room looking for anything of use before looking back down at him, and his eyes connected to hers. 

His eyes. Daiki. They were tortured, desperate, fighting. Daiki wasn’t the demon. The demon had simply possessed him. This is how the demon has slipped past the warlocks - it takes the form of men women trust and follows them into the bathroom and if Daiki wasn’t the demon - that meant she could exorcise it! The Book. 

She didn’t have it with her. She reached out to Daiki, but was thrown back into the wall, the demon overtaking him pinning her to the wall, screaming into her face “RED OR BLUE!?”

She didn’t have the book!

She didn’t know the spell!

“RED OR BLUE!?” The demon screamed again, taking her throat in his hand and a knife into his other.

Zelda screamed back into it as she grabbed at the hand on her throat!

She couldn’t remember the spell - she had to try! She had to try! THINK!

“Satan help me!” She summoned the most commanding voice she could and began.

“I HEREBY BANISH YOU AKO MANTO BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG! I CALL UPON LILITH FIRST AMONG WITCHES! I- IM...IMBUE ME WITH STRENGTH SISTER INTERCEDE ON MY BEHALF! I CALL UPON … SARAH GOODE!? IMBUE ME WITH STRENGTH SISTER INTERCEDE ON MY BEHALF! -”

The demon grabbed her jaw, undeterred by her efforts, smashing her head back into the wall, “RED OR BLUE!?”

Zelda yelped in pain as he pulled her body forwards from her jaw bone before smashing her back into the wall a second time, a blinding white light overcoming her sight for a second before black danced in the air. She fought to grab his hand, but the hand holding the knife punched the wall beside her face. 

She screamed again, begging for anyone to hear her! Edward?! Seia-san?!

“DAIKI I DON'T REMEMBER IT!” Her voice started to spiral into a whimper, “I don’t remember! I don’t remember... “  
“RED OR BLUE!?!?”

Tears streamed down her face as she tried again, “I call upon TITUBA! IMBUE ME WITH STRENGTH SISTER INTERCEDE ON MY BE-”

The demon pulled her chin sharply, flinging her into the wall across from the basin. She hit the wall with a thud, hitting the floor hard as Daiki’s body moved to loom over her, the red cape seeming to fill the entire room as the room spun violently around her. She bit back bile as she spoke, “I call upon Hecate….imbue me with strength sister - intercede on my behalf..”

The demon struck out its hands back towards her, the knife posed to kill.

“RED OR BLU-”

Daiki interrupted the demon’s cry with a cry of his own, “RED!”

And tore the knife back, quickly slicing it across his own throat. 

Zelda could hear a scream that she knew must have come from her, but all she could focus on was the flood of blood coursing through his neck as he fell to the ground beside her, slumping over with lifeless eyes as she screamed.

The demonic entity began to rise from his lifeless figure into a billowing shadow that flickered into a red faced, fanged, hissing oni that evaporated into nothing as Seia-san burst through the door, embedding the knife into the oni as the world around Zelda went dark. 

***

The world pulsed and pounded as Zelda slowly awoke, her eyes fighting the bright light of day. 

“Oh, Praise Satan!” Edward cried as he stroked her arm, kissing her cheek. 

Her eyes squinted as she turned to him, “Edward?”

Everything in her body ached. Her lungs stung with the pressure of exhalation as her brain pounded, feeling two sizes too big for her skull.

“You’re alright. You’re alright!” He explained with a smile a hand moving down to squeeze her hand. “We’ve defeated the oni and you won’t even have to get married now. We’re going back to France once you’re better…”

Zelda nodded only just slightly before her open eyes became too much once again and she fell back into the slumber of darkness as the image of blood pouring from Daiki’s throat clouded her vision. 

***

Seia’s jaw tightened as she gazed around Daiki’s quarters. His clothes were strewn across the floor, spreading over every surface, shredded. Every hard surface smashed, his desk broken in half as pieces of his chair littered the floor with shards of wood, but the most horrifying image was hung, literally, over his bed.

Rabbit. The poor familiar had been killed and gutted, hung by his entrails, covering the demolished bed in its deep red blood as little blood droplets fell from his now goblin lips. 

She had been hoping to find Zelda here after hearing she’d been released from the medical ward, but it was clear she’d come too late. The red headed witch was long gone from this room. 

The older witch sighed inwardly, pushing down the aching feeling in her stomach as she picked up a silky green kimono from the floor, shaking off the debris before holding it to her chest. She’d begged Edward and and men to wait for the funeral orders until Zelda woke, but his condition was deemed “troubling to look at” and therefore was dealt with immediately. The young witch hadn’t even gotten the chance to say goodbye and view the body, which the girl had detailed in her letters was becoming a growing comfort to her through her experiences of death through her friend Dorothea and her Aunt Evanora.

Seia had wished so desperately for this to be the girl’s chance to get out from under her father’s hand. With even less than a week under Daiki’s hand her raging soul has already begun to quiet. There would be no taming the fire now. All one could do at this point was contain it.

She did still need to find the girl though and having seen Zelda’s bloodwork from the ward, she knew where she would be able to find the witch. She just wasn’t sure she could cope with the scene she may find when she arrived back at her laboratory. 

Zelda’s blood tests were fairly disregarded, the doctors more concerned with keeping the swelling in her skull down, but out of habit Seia had found that tell tale notch in the chemical makeup. She was sure the girl would know, or at least she would aim to make sure, as Zelda was a very thorough witch. Zelda would be in the laboratory. She just wasn’t sure what she could say. She had so few comforts to give.

***

Zelda looked up and threw two vials into the garbage beside Seia’s desk as she rose from her hunkered position, her hands still stained with poorly washed off gobin blood. The girl hadn’t put on makeup, which only pronounced her red rimmed eyes and nose as she wiped the back of her hand against her nose, sniffing angrily. 

The older witch quickly walked over, her arms extended, only to be met with a sudden slap. Seia’s eyes immediately turned cold and she jabbed her finger at the young witch, “You do NOT strike me!”

Zelda quickly shrank as she backed up, retreating to the other side of the examination table, clutching its corners to keep upright in her rage. Seia took a deep breath, trying to loosen the clench in her jaw as she brought a hand up to massage the tender flesh before pointing to the waste bin. “What did you take?”

The girl snarled and didn’t move from the table, her knuckles white as she clutched. Seia could see the pain that was brimming in the girl’s eyes and she knew. 

“Zelda-chan. You should lie down.”

“I didn’t take anything! I’m fine!”

“Zelda-”

“I want OUT of this satan-forsaken country!” the girl yelled as the vials in the cabinets around them began to shake. 

“Z-”

The girl interrupted again, speaking quickly as if to get every word out before Seia could even think about speaking, “Edward’s going to take me back to France - just like he promised! He had me back my bags this morning and now I get to leave  _ for good _ ! I never have to set foot here ever again! I HATE it here! I always did! I never wanted to come back but YOU MADE ME! YOU BROUGHT ME BACK! MY FATHER WOULD HAVE SENT HILDA BUT YOU WERE SELFISH! JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE LONELY DOESN’T MEAN I WAS! I WAS DOING REAL WORK AND YOU RUINED IT! YOU RUINED IT! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!” She exclaimed as she flipped the table towards the older witch who used magic to stop it before it could hit her. 

She frowned deeply, trying not to let the girl’s angry misplaced words penetrate, but there was a sliver of truth to them. Her father had debated sending Hildegard instead of Zelda for a fraction of a moment before she had reminded him of Zelda’s previous work with her. She knew Zelda. She loved the girl and Zelda was right - she was lonely and wanted her company, but her highest reasoning had always been simply getting the eldest Spellman sister away from her father and his volatile influence. Although, easing her own loneliness was a selfish bonus.

With the absence of the table’s support under her hands, Zelda backed up to lean against the counter, her hand touching her abdomen for a fraction of a second before it quickly retreated to hold onto the counter. 

“Zelda-chan, please sit d-”

“I HATE YOU!” the girl snapped with fire filled eyes as she sent vials flying out of the cabinets to the floor. Seia crossed her arms, hoping to appear steadfast rather than conveying how intensely those words stabbed at her heart, but she didn’t blame Zelda. She had failed the girl time and time again when she should have found ways to protect her from the world. In many ways the boy’s death was her fault. She should have ran faster. 

She could see the girl’s resolve not to cry was fading as quickly as hers was and the young witch moved stiffly toward the door, but paused at its frame. 

She waited for the girl to speak if she wished. What could she say to the girl at this point that wouldn’t taste cruel even in its sincerity? 

Zelda looked back at her, her eyes filled to the brim, as full as they could be without spilling over, words at the tip of the girl’s tongue before she simply left, saying nothing. 

Seia watched the door for a moment, willing the girl to come back and let her hold her like she had last time, but she didn’t. The older witch took in a shaking breath before surveying the destroyed laboratory. Everything destroyed here was replaceable, but she could never replace the damage done to that girl’s heart. 

She looked to the waste bin beside the desk. She dreaded the answer, but she needed proof. 

Slowly, she walked over to it and lifted the disposed potions. One was still full - a positive pregnancy test. 

The other was empty - a potion to terminate a pregnancy. 

If only she’d run faster.

***

Zelda’s fork scrapped against her plate as she stabbed the roast before bringing a piece to her lips, tearing a bit of the meat off the piece with her teeth to chew before taking in another drag of her cigarette. Her and Edward had finally returned from Japan this morning and their mother had deemed it celebratory enough for a roast, despite her father’s insistence that Zelda could have and should have stayed behind and married another man. He claimed the covens could have still been unified, but it was Edward who expressed that through his work to destroy the demon that their covens would stay in good graces. 

“Zelda. I wish you wouldn’t smoke at the table, or eat so unladylike,” her mother warned.

Zelda took another drag with the new cigarette holder she had received from Japan. Seia-san had sent it after her and Edward had left on the boat, knowing it would arrive at the same time. She’d meant for it to be a wedding present. Along with the object’s explanation there was a note that stated, “If you’re going to have a filthy habit - you should at least be a lady about it.” 

She knew she needed to send the older witch an apology letter for her outburst in the laboratory, as well as a thank you for the cigarette holder, but she’d decided to wait until tomorrow. 

Hilda beamed beside her and looked around the table, then back up at her. 

“I’m glad you’re back….I can’t believe you were almost  _ married _ !”

Zelda’s lips curled and she could feel her back stiffen as his flayed neck flashed before

her eyes. 

“And you would have had little Japanese children! Oh! How deligh-”

Suddenly Hilda’s skull was punctured with the icepick and Zelda’s hand dropped the

pick, letting her sister’s head fall to the table before picking her fork back up to take another bite of the roast. 

Her mother gasped and immediately stood, “ZELDA!”

Her father stood and grabbed her by the arm roughly, dragging her towards his office, “Edward! Get your sister to the Cain Pit! NOW!”

Zelda could hear chairs moving in the kitchen as she was roughly thrown into her father’s

office.

“You ungrateful wench! Edward shouldn’t have brought you back! That boy is too soft

for his own good! Can’t see your godly wickedness!” He snarled between teeth as he pulled the familiar whip out of the drawer, spitting a spell to remove all of her clothes but her underdress. Zelda jumped at the sudden cold and started to move her arms to shield her breast from perception through the thin fabric before her father pointed to the desk and instead she steeled herself squaring her palms against the mahogany. 

Lash. 

Her jaw clenched as the leather ripped through her skin, hot and sharp. With each lash she could see Daiki’s throat open - his blood pouring. She could feel it on her hands, on her back. She could see his lifeless eyes staring back at her. She braced herself for another fifteen more before her father paused. 

She should have picked instead of him.

She shouldn’t have lived instead of him. 

“Apologize.”

She said nothing. 

Which death would she have picked?

Red or Blue?

She received another ten and he grabbed the nap of her neck pulling her back, his breath still smelling of roast as his voice hissed in her ear, “You will  _ never _ bring harm to your sister again, or I will kill you myself.”

Red. She would have picked Red.

She lunged forward, quickly grabbing the knife he always had on his desk in place of a normal letter opener and shot it backwards, careful not to hit him with it, but to make it seem like she might. He grabbed the knife and held it to her throat, pressing the blade into her neck firmly so it just began to cut into her skin. His hands shook with fury and fear for his youngest daughter.

“If you don’t promise to leave your sister alone I will slit your throat and I will  _ not _ put you in the Cain Pit. You will obey me or die.”

She hoped his words weren’t empty. She wondered if Daiki was right? Would it just feel hot? Would she feel the fire of the blade and none of the pain? 

“I will not.” She promised with a hiss, her eyes challenging him.

The shock of heat sliced through her throat and she fell to the ground. 

It wasn’t painless, but it did feel warm. 


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO'S A LITTLE MONSTER AND WROTE A SPELLMAN SISTERS EPILOGUE TO THIS STORY!!!!!
> 
> I promise this story is over now lmao!! Next I'll finish up AWBAN I swear!!!! I just had to give us all a cute little sister moment!   
> Also Aunt Evanora's grave is ABSOLUTELY a nod to Lota's Fic "Oleander Yolling" which every one of you should check out if you want even more of the Spellman Sisters <3<3<3

When Hilda Spellman’s eyes opened, she knew better than to breathe. 

She was surrounded by the thick, suffocating darkness of the Cain Pit’s dirt and wiggled her fingers, then her arms, then her torso, before deeming herself mobile enough to dig. 

Unfortunately for her, the more times Zelda killed her, the easier the dirt was to dig through and Zelda had been lost to Japan and the sea for the better part of the past three months! She quickly dug her way back up, finding she was buried a bit further than usual. Her breath started to strain as her fingers tangled in what she knew were her sister’s red curls over her. 

Ah! That’s why. 

She supposed she should have known that would be the case considering their father had been present at this slaying. Whenever he was present Zelda tended to be quick to follow her into the Cain Pit. She didn’t know why Zelda wouldn’t just wait to kill her until their father had his back turned. Zelda hated to be dirty and it always took her so long to rise. 

Hilda did her best not to pull on her sister’s hair as she dug around her, but a bit of pulling was inevitable as she dug through the dirt between and around them, finally hitting the fresh air with a gasp as her body rose from the Earth under her sister’s limp corpse. 

“Hilda!” Edward exclaimed as he jumped up from where he sat on Aunt Evanora’s grave to pull her out the rest of the way as she choked on the air entering her lungs. Her fingers clutched at the ground as she scoped globs of dirt and Zelda’s hair out of her mouth, flicking the soggy black goop onto the ground beside the grave as she was hoisted into a standing position by her brother. Even keeping her mouth closed, nastiness seemed to always find its way between her teeth as it often got hard to tell where her lips started and the dirt around her ended while she dug.

“A bit of a spiky supper, eh!” She teased between gasps of air. 

Edward smiled a bit and hugged her gently. “Thank Satan you’re back. I was getting worried.”

“You’re always getting worried!” She soothed, wiping her hands on her skirts before getting back down onto the ground to fix up her sister. 

Edward picked the shovel back up and began to dig again when Hilda pulled Zelda out of the ground. Hilda frowned as Zelda’s head fell back over her wrist, tearing back open her slit throat, some coagulated blood seeped out of the tear and down her neck that Hilda quickly wiped up. That would scar for a bit longer now. She propped her sister’s head in the crook of her elbow and rubbed her cold arms with her free hand. She would leave a jacket out for her sister for when she woke - that thin chemise wasn’t going to be any help against the cold mountain night air. 

“Alright. We can set her back in,” Edward declared, sticking the shovel back at the head of the grave. 

“Be careful of her head!” Hilda warned as she helped him lift her sister, Edward taking her upper body, while she took her sister’s feet to place her in the shallow grave. Zelda hated to dig too far. 

Once her sister was secured in the grave, she quietly sat on the ground, warming her toes with her fingers as Edward picked the shovel back up to cover Zelda with the life giving dirt. 

He paused his burying a third of the way though when he noticed her shivering and took off his jacket so she would have something to warm herself with while he finished the job. Hilda curled up her shoulders into the large black jacket, feeling comfort as his scent wafted around her. 

Once he was done he returned the shovel before reaching his hand out to her. “Let’s get you inside. Once the sun hits the horizon it’s going to be nippy enough to frost.”

Hilda nodded, taking his hand to pull herself up before removing the jacket.

“What are you doing!?” Edward scolded, trying to take it to put it back over her shoulders. 

“If it’s gonna be cold, Zelds’ll need it,” Hilda justified as she folded it up, setting it beside the grave before quickly pittering back into her brother’s side, curling into his dirty sweaty shirt. 

He nodded and held her close as they walked back. “Good thinking…” 

***

It was late when Hilda finally heard the door open and her sister’s shuffling steps emerge into the anteroom. At this point in the night all but she had gone to bed. Even Edward had stopped waiting for their sister after the third 3 am rise, but Hilda knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she knew her sister had come back. 

“Zelda!” She cried, quickly dropping her downstairs knitting to meet her sister, but instead of the hug she hoped for to soothe their earlier spat, she only narrowly dodged a slap. 

“Don’t touch me,” Zelda grumbled as she pulled Edward’s jacket further around her shivering body, the sleeve of the jacket covered in dirt drenched vomit. She should have left the jacket a bit further from the grave. She should have remembered Zelda didn’t always follow her - look first then breathe trick when it came to waking up. 

“I’ve already started the bath for y-” Hilda began as she moved to stand in front of her a bit (at a distance) to lead her upstairs, but stopped when she saw the pale wet tear streaks that ran down her sister’s face, paving their way so intensely they’d force their way through the dirt on her face only illuminated through the anteroom’s pale moonlight. 

“What?” Her sister asked harshly before shooting past her to quietly stomp up the stairs, leaving Hilda at it’s base. 

Zelda was rare to cry. 

Well, not entirely, but never after the Cain Pit with the exception of their first time. 

What could she have to be upset about? The events of this evening were nothing out of the ordinary. She had come back from Japan and hadn’t had to marry a stranger, which she knew her sister would loathe, especially with Faustus having come to France! She could resume her midwife studies here. She’d received not only a letter, but a package from Seia-san!

She heard the tinkle of Vinnie T’s collar bell as the puppy nudged open the door to the bathroom. He must have escaped their father’s binding spell. He was getting better at that. 

She had Vinnie T back! 

Hilda frowned deeply as she walked up the steps and into their room, changing into her favorite soft pink floral nightie. 

She picked up her upstairs knitting and started to work through it, one of her familiars, Lucy, taking care to make sure that the yarn didn’t knot on it’s way up her bedside to her fingers as she waited for Zelda. 

The large clock in their room ticked.

And ticked.

And continued to tick until Hilda almost got out of bed to check on her sister, worried she might have accidentally drowned again, when her sister walked into the room sans towel with Vinnie T trailing behind her. 

“Zelda…..”

Her sister said nothing and instead started to rifle through her unpacked suitcase. She should have unpacked that for her. Usually she did, otherwise it would sit there for weeks just spewing from its edges as Zelda removed items from it, but she supposed she did have to give herself a smidge of slack for being dead for the better part of the evening. She would do it first thing tomorrow.

“Z-” She started again, but thought better of it as her sister wrapped a black kimono with pretty white flowers around her body before crawling into her bed, her voice thick as she waved her hand to turn out all the lights despite Hilda not being done with her knitting row (luckily, she could finish it by feel).

“Go to bed, Hilda.”

Hilda frowned deeply into her knitting, working her fingers around the needles in the dark as she thought through her little play on a classic rhyme to finish the last of her row. She’d added to the rhyme in order to give everyone the chance at love, rather than just two people. 

He loves me, he loves me not. 

She loves me, she loves me not.

He loves her, he loves her not.

He loves him, he loves him not.

She loves her, she loves her not.

She loves him.

And the row ended. 

Then it hit her!

She loves him!

Zelda had loved him! THAT’S why she’d been so tense at dinner as they discussed it! That’s why she’d killed her when she began to speak of potential children! Oh! Zelda wanted children so badly! How could she have been so daft! With how Edward was speaking of it all, she never thought for once to take his word as just that -  _ his  _ word. 

She looked over at her sister and could see her slender shoulders shaking just slightly and Vinnie T had moved from his usual spot at her feet to curl up in Zelda’s arms. 

She set her knitting down in the knitting basket she kept by her bed and quietly slid off to take the few steps over to Zelda’s bed. She pulled back the sheets before tucking then back in, wrapping her arms and legs around her sister, ignoring her still wet hair.

Zelda groaned in protest, but made no moves to relieve her of her sister. Her sniffles getting a bit louder now that there was no use in hiding them. 

Hilda quickly wiped away some fresh tears with her soft pink sleeve before hugging her sister tighter, squeezing her so her sister would know she wasn’t about to let her go. 

Her older sister hugged Vinnie T and wiped her eyes with her kimono sleeve. 

“That’s a pretty kimono…” Hilda encouraged, hoping for information so she would know better how to be a comfort.

Zelda nodded and shrugged. “It’s not really mine….I stole it…”

“I’m sure Seia-san won’t mind…”

Zelda nodded, but her muscles tensed a bit leading Hilda to believe that Seia-san may not have been who she stole it from. 

“....................You could write him a letter. It would be like in a Jane Austen novel! You could write to him and say you accidentally packed his kimono and he would write back and say “Oh, no, that’s my favorite one. You need to come back and return it” and then you could woo him and then you wou-”

“He’s dead.”

Hilda’s words stopped in their tracks. 

“What? Zelds!?” She quickly sat up to try to get a look at her sister’s face, but Zelda just pulled her back down, letting go of Vinnie to wrap Hilda’s arms back around her. 

Hilda frowned and snuggled into her sister. 

She wasn’t sure what she could say. She wanted to say she was sorry, but she also didn’t want to get slapped.

Zelda sniffled again, wiping her nose on Hilda’s sleeve before quietly confessing more than actually asking, “......Why does this always happen to me?”

Hilda’s frown deepened and she held her sister as tightly as she could. She hadn’t known of any of her sister’s lover’s who also died. Perhaps she was just being dramatic, but unlike Edward she did always suspect that D. P.’s letter addressed to “Kristen Kringle” must have been to Zelda. She wondered if that was another lover? Perhaps another one who died? Zelda’s birthday was on Mortal Christmas and Zelda had been in such a state when she returned, hardly leaving the church…. 

“You’ve just got a bit of a bad luck streak….Faustus is still here. Remember how much you liked him?”

Zelda nodded slightly, but said nothing more. 

Hilda watched Zelda’s suitcase in the silence from over her sister’s shoulder before beginning to hum their favorite little lullaby. She hummed and hummed, repeating the song until her sister’s sniffles slowly stopped and she fell asleep. 

She thought about moving back to her bed, knowing she would definitely end up thrown to the floor if Zelda woke up first, but after only a few seconds of deliberation she decided she’d rather get a goose egg than have her sister wake up chilly and lonely. She wouldn’t want her to have to suffer one of her night terrors alone and the likeness of Zelda waking up first had drastically decreased since their last move to Ireland. 

Hilda snuggled in as deeply as she could and shut her eyes. 

One day they would all be happy and married and have a gaggle of children each to carry on the Spellman line. Hilda was sure of it. One day.


End file.
